Power Rangers: Dragon Fire
by retrosoul-vintageheart
Summary: The first all-girl team of Power Rangers.
1. Chapter 1

All Dr. Tommy Oliver could do was stare. "This can not be happening," he thought to himself as he continued to stare at the six teen girls in front of him. "There is no way this is the new team."

Adam Park, who was busy writing down a new martial arts move he wanted to show the other Rangers in a black and green spiral and not paying attention to where he was going, walked right into Tommy. "Hey, why'd you…. no way, AELLA?" Adam said, walking over and staring at the leader of the group, who was wearing yellow.

"Hey Adam!" she said brightly. Her long dark brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her brown eyes shone with excitement.

Dustin Brooks, who was coming in from motor-cross, yellow gear on and yellow helmet in hand, stopped next to Adam. "Dude! Nia!" Dustin said, smiling, going over to the girl in green with waist length dark brown hair and giving her a huge hug.

"Hey dude." She said, her dark brown eyes smiling as she got comfortable in his arms.

Shane Clarke, walking through with his red skateboard and red helmet in hand, stopped in his tracks. "Impossible. This HAS to be impossible. Kali?" he said as he walked over to the girl in black.

"You better start believin' it, babe." she said, throwing her long blonde messy braid over her shoulder and smiling at Shane's shock, her brown eyes glittering.

Connor McKnight, who had just arrived from the airport, red duffel in hand, walked towards Tommy. "Dr. O, what's so important that I had to fly in from Virginia to see you?" Tommy, still speechless, only nodded towards the girls. Connor, noticing them for the first time, spotted the girl in white and a surprised look crossed his face. "Charis! Why are you here?" he said, dropping his bag and walking over to her.

"Guess I'm a Ranger now, Conner." she said, shrugging and tucking her long pale blonde hair behind her ears, looked up at him, her hazel eyes looking slightly confused.

Hunter Bradley and Tori Hanson, coming in from the sparring room, walked over to the now crowd of people in the middle of the entrance hall. "Tommy, what's going…CARI?!?" Hunter shouted in disbelief, stopping in front of the girl in red, her long light brown hair French braided down her back, who now also looked slightly offended.

"You got a problem with this?" she asked, crossing her arms and staring to look slightly dangerous, glared at him, her brown eyes daring him to even start going down that thought path.

"No! I'm just…surprised, I guess." He said, trying to amend the situation.

Tori just laughed at Hunter and walked over to the girl in blue. "It's good to see you again, Alexia. It's been a while." she said, giving her a hug.

"Too long, really. I haven't seen you since the time Cyber Cam crashed the main frame into smithereens and Cam needed two more hands and another super brain to help fix it." she said. "Wait, no. Last time I saw you was when you and Blake had that scheme about Nia and Dustin and Cari and Hunter last month." Both Blues starting laughing uncontrollably.

"WHAT SCHEME?" cried Hunter and Cari as Dustin and Nia laughed. "Don't worry, dude. I'll tell you about it later." Dustin said, patting Hunter's shoulder as Cari glared at Nia. "You knew?" she half-shouted. "Dustin told me, dudette. Chill." Nia said, unfazed. "Fine. And don't call me dudette." Cari said turning her attention back to Hunter.

Tommy continued staring at the scene that had unfolded in front of him, still in total amazement. An all-girl Ranger team with all the colors. Former Rangers were even dating the members. He watched as Aella convinced Adam she could take care of herself, Nia discussed the "coolness" of being a Ranger with Dustin, Shane and Kali were having a intense debate over whether or not their team was "legal" (Kali was firmly on the side of her team; Shane was throwing lines from the "Ranger Code" at her), Connor and Charis were debating who was the best leader of all the Ranger teams (Tommy, Jason and Connor ("Not fair! You can't vote for yourself!" said Charis, which started a 5 minute argument) were in the Top 5), Cari and Hunter were having a pointless argument over nothing (which Hunter was losing) and Alexia and Tori were laughing themselves sick over past incidents. Tommy just couldn't wrap his mind around it. An all-girl team?

Just as Tommy was contemplating to either turn around and walk away or to stop the madness in front of him, Cam Wantanabe, who was carrying a green Frisbee, came up and stood beside him. "New team?" Cam asked, pointing at the girls. Tommy nodded, turning his head to look at Cam to catch his reaction to the all –girl team. "Interesting. Think they and the others would want to play Extreme Frisbee with me?"

"Did someone say Extreme Frisbee?" Alexia said, gasping for breath, her light blue eyes watering from laughing so hard. She turned towards the direction that the voice came from and broke out in a huge grin. "Cam!" she cried, running up to him, her medium length light red hair flying into her face, and quickly kissed him on the cheek. "Hey Lexi! Blue Ranger, huh?" Cam said, pulling her hair out of her eyes. "Oh, yes! My newfound abilities are beyond comprehension!" She paused, realizing she had started using big words and reworded what she had just said. "I meant to say, my new powers are really cool!" Cam just laughed.

"EXCUSE ME!" Tommy shouted over the noise of the Ranger's voices. Everyone quieted down and turned towards Tommy. "Could someone PLEASE explain what's going on?" he asked, with a slight begging/pleading tone. Tommy looked at Aella, with an expectant look. She sighed and with a flick of her head, the rest of her team fell in behind her. "What do you want to know first?" she asked Tommy, her arms crossed. "Morphing?" Cam suggested. With a look at Adam, he and Tommy gathered the former Rangers behind them so that they were facing the girls.

Aella glanced at Kali on her left and then over at Nia on her right. They nodded. "Ready?" Aella called. "Ready!" Nia, Kali, Charis, Cari, and Alexia called back. "DRAGON FIRE, IGNITE!" they yelled as they raised their right arm, making a claw with their right hand, brought it back down, and as they brought their left arm up to waist height, hit their right hand against the underside of their left wrist, where the veins are visible. A blinding flash of light and a loud roar later, the new Rangers, stood before them, morphed.

"Whoa." Dustin said, summing up everyone's reaction. Tommy was seriously impressed. He couldn't believe their color. Aella was in highlighter yellow, Nia in neon lime green, Kali in pitch black, Charis in blinding pure white, Cari in bright red, and Alexia in neon bright blue. Each of them had a different looking dragon on their chest, their helmets looked like a dragon's head, which was in mid-roar, their boots were all solid black, and, of course, they all had skirts.

"Think you're bright enough? I think I'm gonna need a pair of sunglasses." Connor joked, which earned him a smack upside the head from Tori. "Ow." he said, rubbing the back of his head. A snort of laughter came from inside Charis' helmet and each of the girls pulled off their helmets.

"How did you come up with a morphing call on your own?" Adam asked.

"We didn't. When we received our powers, it just came with them, I guess." Kali said.

"Speaking of powers, what are yours?" Shane asked.

"Well, I have air, Alexia has water, Charis has weather, Kali has the senses, Nia has earth and Aella has fire. It comes from our dragons." Cari stated.

"Do you guys have gems, coins or whatever that you received your powers from?" Hunter asked.

"We each have a different specific dragon medallion for our powers. We can also use our secondary powers at any time whether or not we are in morph. This is because our abilities are bonded with our DNA." Alexia explained.

"What she said was that our dragon necklaces are what gave us our Ranger abilities and we can use our powers at any time." Aella translated.

"What I want to know is how you got your abilities." Tommy said. "Everyone has their story."

"Well, really it's Nia's fault. I mean, if she hadn't wandered off AGAIN,-" Cari started.

"It's your fault too! If you weren't constantly screaming-" Kali retorted.

"HEY! We're all to blame. Yes, Nia is a wanderer. Yes, Cari is a stress ball. We ALL contributed to getting here. Sheesh." Aella said. She turned to Tommy. "It's kinda a long story. You might want to sit. But first-"

"DRAGON FIRE, DISPERSE!" the girls chorused, repositioning their arms to where they were when they morphed and lifting their clawed right hand upward. After a flash of light, they were back in their normal clothes. Tommy motioned everyone over to a group of couches by a large window on the other side of the room. Aella, Nia, and Kali sat together on the couch facing the window, Cari, Charis, and Alexia sat on the couch next to the wall, Tommy sat in the armchair between them. On the couch in front of the window sat Adam, Dustin and Shane and on the couch facing the wall sat Hunter, Connor and Cam. Tori sat in the armchair between them.

"Shouldn't we wait for Jason?" Adam asked Tommy.

"He's running a few hours late. He said for us to go ahead and fill him in later." Tommy explained to Adam and the group.

"So, from the top, then?" Adam asked.

"It happened a little less than two days ago." Aella began. "As an end-of-college gift to us, Nia, Kali and I had planned a cross-state road trip from San Diego to San Francisco then back home. Cari, Charis and Alexia had, unknown to us at the time, planned the same trip. When Kali found out, she invited them to come with us. You see, only Kali knew them because she had classes with them. So, we weren't really friendly to each other at the start of our trip a week ago. Then as we were heading back home…"


	2. Chapter 2

_**2 DAYS AGO**_

"WILL SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE ME SOME ELBOW ROOM!?!?!" Cari screamed, who was seriously thinking of stabbing herself with the pen she was holding in her right hand. It wasn't bad enough that she had gotten stuck in the middle seat with Alexia and her laptop on her left and Charis ('THE LEFTIE OF ALL PEOPLE!!' Cari screamed in her head) alternating between sleeping on Cari's shoulder and writing songs on her right. For the past 3 hours, she had been trying to work on her "Great American Novel" as Charis put it, and had only barely written 4 pages. 'This was a bad idea. I TOLD them that 6 people wouldn't fit properly in a Jeep. But nobody listens to the writer. Nobody EVER listens to the writer!' Cari thought.

"GOD! DON'T DO THAT WHILE I'M DRIVING!" Aella shouted back. She had swerved into the other lane when Cari had screamed and had to immediately swerve back so that she wouldn't cause a head–on collision. Kali just laughed and, turning around to face Cari, said, "Having issues, are we? Use a tissue!" Cari chucked her pen at Kali's face, which missed and landed on the dashboard in front of her instead. "My pen now, chickie." Kali said, turning back to face the front.

Nia, who was the designated trunk rider, was sleeping in between the duffels, hugging Charis' guitar case like a teddy bear and using her jacket and backpack for a pillow, audibly muttered in her sleep, "Stop the madness, I want to get on." Cari sighed, exasperated.

Charis looked up from her notebook and out the window. "Where are we?" she asked, pulling out an earphone. Her recorded guitar music could be easily heard by everyone.

"Approximately about 3 miles from Shasta Valley, where an exhibit on mythological reptiles resides at the local museum. It's rumored to be very informative." Alexia said, not even looking up fro her laptop.

"Huh?" Charis asked.

"She said that we're about 3 minuets from Shasta Valley, where a new exhibit on dragons is on display at the museum." Aella said without missing a beat.

"Dudette! Dragons? Sounds sweet! I want to go see it! 'Ella! Can we? Pease?" Nia said from the back.

"When did you wake up?" Cari asked, turning to face Nia, who was still in the same position she had been sleeping in.

"Around the time 'Ella was translating Alexia, dudette." She said, yawning.

"Stop calling me dudette." Cari turned back around to face forward.

"Whatever. Can we go? PLEASE? Oh! I know! Raise your hand if you want to see the dragon stuff!" Nia called up to the rest of the group, raising her hand. Aella, Kali, Alexia and a reluctant Cari raised their hands. Charis had already put her earphone back in, oblivious to the vote. "Charis doesn't count because she can't hear me. Majority rules! We go!"

"Some days I truly can't believe that she's 22. You would think that she's 17 or something." Kali said to Aella as Nia did her mini "victory dance" in the trunk.

"She's a surprise at each turn." Aella said, taking the exit for the city.

Half an hour later, much to the dismay of Cari, ("Can't this car go any faster?!?" could generally be heard from her seat about every 2 minuets until they arrived) Aella, Kali, Charis, Alexia, a very irritable Cari and a totally excited Nia were inside the museum.

"Look at this! Dudettes! And over here! This is so cool! And look at that! It's ancient!" Nia exclaimed, as she ran around looking at all the glass cases.

"This diagram of this museum's floor plan indicates that the exhibit that piqued Nia's interest is on the 3rd level. These stairs ahead of us should exit at the exhibit's entrance." Alexia said as she looked at the museum map.

"Dudettes! Let's go!" Nia said, racing up the stairs. No one noticed her running up the stairs, as they were looking at the map to see what other exhibits there were at the museum.

"Hey, Ni, do you want to see the mummies? They look- Guys, where's Nia?" Aella asked, noticing for the first time that random "dudettes" where not being voiced.

"She yelled something earlier about going somewh- THE DRAGONS!" Kali exclaimed, running up the stairs, Aella right on her heels. Alexia, Charis, and Cari ran up right behind them. At the 3rd floor, they found the exhibit entitled "Ancient Dragons of the World". All of them sprinted in, looking for Nia. Alexia searched the origins section, Charis searched the sculpture section, Cari and Kali looked through the appearance section and Aella looked in the symbols section.

"Found her!" Aella called to the others, as she rounded the corner to an alcove of the symbols section. She walked towards the center of the area, where Nia was standing over an open box. "There you are! Why'd you-"

She stopped when she saw what Nia was looking at. On the display, there was an ancient wooden box, clasped shut. On the outside, there were carvings of different looking dragons from around the world: China, Ireland, Africa, Japan, Greece and Spain. Each one was a different color: bright red, bright blue, bright yellow, bright white, black and bright green.

"Look at it. It's beautiful and completely impossible. No one of that era could have known about the other, much less be able to dye wood that brightly." Nia said, reaching out towards it to touch it, just as the others were rounding the corner.

"NO!" Aella yelled, grabbing Nia's hand away from the box, but just barely brushing it herself. As she did, the box flew open, emitting a blinding flash of light and a loud roar that sounded like a dragon. When the light faded away, each of the six girls was wearing a silver dragon medallion on black cord. Aella had a Chinese dragon that shined yellow, Nia had a Celtic dragon that shined green, Cari had a Greek dragon that shined red, Charis had an African dragon that shined white, Alexia had a Japanese dragon that shined blue and Kali had a Spanish dragon that shined black.

"What's going on?" Charis asked, looking at her medallion. Alexia walked over to where Aella and Nia were standing and read the plaque on the display: "''This box, origin unknown, was found in a flea market in San Angela. According to legend, this box contains the power of the elements, weather and the senses and apparently has a will of its own. According to this myth, these six powers can only be wielded by women of enormous courage and goodness of heart to be warriors or soldiers. When this box is touched by one it feels can lead this group accordingly, it will give out these powers to the one that touched it and the five women closest it feels meet the requirements. In modern times, these powers are equivalent to those of the Power Rangers, in the respect that when these women are faced with the need prepare for a battle, their powers will provide them with the necessary armor and weapons. The natural powers of the elements, weather and senses, once given to the six chosen, bond with the genetic makeup of the warriors, giving them this power for life.'"

"Wait. So we're, like, POWER RANGERS now?" Nia asked, in amazement.

"I assume so." Alexia replied, rereading the plaque again.

"Sweet!" Nia said, starting to dance around. Suddenly, the earth shook. Nia stopped dancing and then the shaking stopped. Nia danced again and the earth shook. "Um, that's not supposed to happen, I think."

"I believe you received the power of earth, Nia." Alexia explained. Just then the AC kicked in. "Geez, it's cold in here." Aella said, rubbing her hands together, causing her hands to catch fire. She yelped in surprise. Alexia reached over to her and water erupted from her hands.

"Methinks 'Ella has fire and Alexia has water." Nia said, watching the surprised looks on their faces.

"Ick! Smoke!" Cari said, waving her hands in front of her. A huge breeze blew around them and the smoke was gone. "I guess I have wind." She shrugged.

Charis smiled and looked out the sky light above them. "EW. It's raining. I wish it was sunny." Suddenly, all the rain was gone and it was perfectly clear sky. "I call weather!" she said brightly.

"That's rude." Kali muttered, tilting her head towards the stairwell.

"What's rude?" Aella asked her.

"The lady at the entrance counter is whining that we're taking too long and that she wants to go home." Kali explained.

Everyone else looked at each other and said, "The senses."

"This means that Aella is the fearless leader of our super sweet group." Nia said, summing everything up.

"What should we do now then?" Cari asked, staring at Aella.

"I think we need to take this box with us and go to PRU." She said, looking around the group.

"Who?" Charis asked.

" Power Ranger University. PRU for short and for secrecy. It's a place of sorts for people like us to live and train without leaking our secret to the world. It was created and, still is, run by former Power Rangers. Adam Park, my boyfriend, is a former Ranger and one of the creators. He also helps run the place. The owner is Dr. Tommy Oliver who has been a Ranger multiple times. His close friend Jason Scott, also a former Ranger, is the other creator." She explained.

"How long until we get there from here?" Charis asked her.

"A day." Aella answered, sticking the box in her bag.

"Let's go." Kali said, leading the way back to the jeep.

On the way there, Aella called Tommy to ask for directions, tell everyone to meet them there and give him the basic summary of why they were coming.

"YES, we are an ALL-GIRL Ranger team. Yes, I promise to explain when we get there." she told Tommy for the hundredth time as she hung up.

"Well, this should be fun!" Kali said, sarcastically.

"Tons. Hey, how many of you knew that all of your boyfriends were former Rangers?" Aella asked. Everyone except Nia, who was asleep, raised their hand.

"Go Power Rangers! Go Ninja Storm! LET'S GO!" Nia sang in her sleep.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'" Aella laughed.


	3. Chapter 3

Jason had to admit it: he was impressed.

When Tommy had called and told him that the new Ranger team was all girls, his initial reaction was to laugh. "An all-girl Ranger team? No way. You've got to be kidding me. There has to be some law against it or something," he said, laughing at Tommy over the phone. After hours of convincing from Tommy and Adam, here he was driving into the PRU 'campus', as he, Tommy and Adam had jokingly called it when they had first built it, fully expecting to find this all a huge practical joke. They had built this place, calling it PRU for 'Power Ranger University', to help future Ranger teams prepare and train for battle, not to mention, a really good place to hang out and lie low for a while. It was built to look like a spacious estate, complete with Olympic sized swimming pool, sport court, 'stables' (for future zords and whatnot) riding trails, half a forest and god knows what else. The main building, which housed the Rangers, former and active, a kitchen big enough to rival a small college's cafeteria, and a fully equipped exercise and sparring room, looked like a huge three storied stone and brick mansion. As he turned into the main parking lot, he saw a red old Mustang with black racing stripes, a yellow motorcycle, a blue VW van, a yellow Jeep Grand Cherokee and a black Jeep Wrangler with no top. "Guess the gang's all here," Jason mused as he pulled in next to the Jeep. As he walked into the main building, he saw Tommy and Adam leaving the dining hall, waters in hand.

"Jason!" Tommy called over to him.

"Good to see you finally made it!" Adam joked.

"Yeah, since Angel Grove is _so_ far away." Jason said sarcastically.

"Reefside or Blue Bay Harbor are about the same distance from here as Angel Grove is." Tommy stated.

"That's not the point. Where's this girly team of yours?" Jason asked.

"Out in the back sports area. Come meet them." Adam said.

Jason followed them past the dining hall and sparring room, through the glass doors at the end of the hall, and towards the forest in the back. Near the trees, there was the pool, sport court and a large grassy area, all of which were currently populated by a bunch of college-age looking kids.

"The former Rangers you know, right?" Adam asked Jason as the three of them stopped a hundred yards from the sport court.

"Yeah." Jason said, watching the different activities going on.

"OK. Charis is the one wearing white and playing soccer with Connor. Alexia is the redhead in the blue swimsuit over there by the pool with Tori. Aella is the one in yellow who Cam is teaching Ninja moves to. Cari is the one in red sitting under the trees with Hunter. Kali is the one in black that Shane is teaching new skateboard moves to on the sport court and Nia is the one in green having a cartwheel contest with Dustin." Tommy said, pointing everyone out to Jason.

"Aella is your girl, right?" Jason asked Adam, causing Adam to blush slightly.

"Yes. Going on 6 months now." Adam said, watching Aella's stance being corrected by Cam.

"Hey, Tommy, what'd you say the name of this team was?" Jason asked, watching Kali nail the move Shane had been teaching her.

"Dragon Fire." Tommy said, watching Charis score a goal around Connor.

"Kinda ironic, don't you think?" Jason asked him, thinking of Tommy's Green Ranger Dragon Zord, as Nia did a cartwheel right into Cari and Hunter, much to the amusement of Dustin.

"I guess. To me, it all just fits in to the weirdness that is my life." Tommy said, watching Cari chase Nia around the grassy area while Hunter and Dustin laughed themselves sick.

"Okay, then." Jason said, looking sideways at Tommy.

"Round them up." Tommy said to Adam, who raised his hand to his mouth and emitted a whistle that made anyone within a 100 yard radius cringe.

"OVER HERE!" Adam called to everyone. As everyone was heading over, Tommy turned back to Jason.

"How's Trini?" He asked, watching Aella run up with Cam, who both looked a little sweaty and Kali and Shane walk over from the sport court.

"She's good. She told me to tell you that if we need her, she'll be able to come over and help, since she's her own boss at that tech help place now. How's Kim?" Jason said as Alexia and Tori came over from the pool, wrapped in towels, and Nia, Dustin, Hunter and Cari came over, all covered in grass.

"She's good. Her gymnastics studio is really starting to take off. She said that she'd be coming up every other day to check up on me and to make sure we don't kill each other." Tommy laughed as Charis and Connor jogged over, leaving the soccer ball in the middle of the grass.

"Those were glorious days when you two finally married the girls you had been staring at for FAR too long." Adam joked, putting his arm around Aella and smiling at her.

Jason just rolled his eyes as Tommy sad to the crowd, "Guys, this is Jason. He's the co-creator of this place and one of my oldest friends. He's come here to help with your training. He's the first Red." He gave significant looks to Cari, Shane, Connor and Hunter.

"Sweet!" Connor said, running up to him and violently shaking his hand. "Connor McKnight, Red Dino." Jason had a slightly pained look on his face and tried to smile, which just came out as a grimace.

"Shane Clarke, Red Wind." Shane said, moving Connor out of the way before he could hurt someone and shook Jason's hand normally. Jason smiled his thanks.

"Hunter Bradley, Crimson Thunder." Hunter said, shaking his hand after Shane moved away. Jason smiled politely, not exactly sure if crimson counted for red.

"Cari Lugh, Red Dragon." Cari said, shaking his hand after Hunter had move to the side.

'So this is the girl Red.' Jason thought as he smiled warmly back at her. "Welcome to life as a Ranger, Cari." He said.

"Thanks. I think." She said, walking back over to Hunter, who put his arm around her. Jason wondered if she was anything like the Red he had been.

Tommy smirked. "These are the former Rangers who have come to help the Dragon Fire team." Tommy said, looking at Cam, Tori and Dustin.

"Cam Wantanabe, Green Samurai." Cam said, shaking Jason's hand. Jason nodded.

"Tori Hanson, Blue Wind." Tori said, shaking Jason's hand after Cam moved back.

"Wasn't your boyfriend, Blake Bradley, a Ranger too?" Jason asked her.

"Fiancée, actually and yes, he was. The Navy Thunder Ranger. He's coming up later this week after he finishes the motor-cross tournament he's competing in for the charity Forever Blue sponsors." She said, moving out of the way for Dustin.

"Dustin Brooks, Yellow Wind." Dustin said, shaking Jason's hand with enthusiasm. Jason smiled back at him, amused by his eagerness.

"This is our new team, Dragon Fire. You've already met their Red, Cari." Adam said to Jason after Dustin had moved back.

"Aella Emery, Yellow Dragon. I'm the leader." Aella said, walking up and shaking Jason's hand. A surprised look crossed Jason's face. 'Wait until Trini finds out. I'll never hear the end of it' he thought to himself.

"Charis Everard, White Dragon." Charis said, shaking Jason's hand. Jason smile politely at her, wondering if she was anything like the White that he had known.

"Kali Brecht, Black Dragon." Kali said, moving past Charis and shaking Jason's hand. Jason gave her a nice smile, remembering Zack's attitude as a Black. Kali smiled back and moved away to let Alexia through.

"Alexia Rylan, Blue Dragon." Alexia said, moving up and shaking Jason's hand in a very business-like manner. Jason smiled at her, remembering his favorite Blue friend.

"Nia Valéria, Green Dragon. It's so cool to finally meet you, dude." Nia said, moving up and enthusiastically shaking Jason's hand. Jason was struck by how much alike and, the same time, how much different she was from the Green he had known.

"Well, now that introductions have been made, why don't we go and get-"

"FOOD!" Nia and Dustin chorused and bolted towards the house at break-neck speed. Everyone laughed and followed after them at a normal pace.

Jason turned to Kali and asked, "So what's the story behind the madness?" Kali just laughed and began retelling their story.

As they reached the cafeteria, arguing could be heard coming from the kitchen.

"Dudette, it's my turn to cook! You did it all last week!" Dustin whined.

"That's only because you were GONE all last week at that tournament. This week is so totally my week, dude." Nia shot back.

Aella made a face. "Excuse me for one moment," she said, going into the kitchen. For a little while all that could be heard was quiet arguing and calm discussion. Then:

"HA! I win!" cheered Dustin.

"That is so not fair! You're a Yellow too! CAM!!" Nia called.

"Oh boy," Cam said, leaving the group and heading into the kitchen.

Muted arguing and not so calm discussion could be heard from the kitchen. Adam just shook his head and motioned for everyone to sit down and get comfortable. By the time Aella and Cam came back out, looking like they had just been to hell and back, Kali had finished telling the story and everyone had gotten drinks.

Adam began to rise but stopped with a look form Aella. "Dinner will be ready soon. Knowing Nia and Dustin, I have not one clue what it will be or even look like, but it WILL be edible and probably taste really good," she said, collapsing in the empty chair next to Adam.

Tommy looked at Cam as he dropped down into the chair next to him, completely worn out. "That bad?" he said, slightly smiling. Cam just looked at him.

"Nia and Dustin are the 'never back down' type of people who will always defend what is theirs, no matter how big or small the argument or situation is," Cam said, tiredly slumping a little in his seat.

Tommy opened his mouth to reply, when a huge thing of super hot tortillas was placed in front of him. He looked up to see Dustin putting huge bowls of what looked like salsa out next to a large platter of chicken fajita meat. Nia was putting out a huge pot of macaroni and cheese made from a box out next to to an enormous bowl of peas.

After dinner and everything had been thrown into one of the dishwashers, everyone moved and went to go sit in the theater room right off of the main foyer. Everyone was just sitting around, talking with different people, catching up on what had happened to them since they had seen each other. Aella, Tommy, Adam and Jason were talking towards the front, Cam, Alexia, Cari, Tori and Hunter were on the left side, Charis and Connor were sitting in a corner, and Shane, Kali, Nia and Dustin were all sitting in seats towards the back of the room.

"Hey, let's watch a movie. We could watch 'Signs' or something," Shane suggested. Kali shrugged her shoulders, not caring either way.

"Nah, dude. I'm so beat. I had motor-cross all day. Totally energy-killing," Dustin said, yawning. Looking down, he noticed that Nia had fallen asleep, her head resting against his chest. "Plus, I'll need to carry her up to her room," he added, brushing her hair out of her face.

"We have tons of planning to do for tomorrow. We might as well start," Jason said to Adam and Tommy who nodded in agreement and they left to go plan for tomorrow.

Aella started going around and sending each team member (that was still awake) to bed. Each started putting up persuasive arguments to get her to change her mind or try and trip her up.

"You'll get to sleep in. Who in their right mind would wake you up at 3:00 in the morning," Aella laughed.


	4. Chapter 4

"It's 3:15 am! What do you want from me?" Aella yelled as she opened her door. Standing there was Tommy, Adam and Jason, wearing their training sweats.

"Time to get up. Today's training began 15 minuets ago." Tommy said. Turning to Jason and Adam, he said, "Go wake up the former Rangers and the other Dragon Rangers. Meet me in the sparring room."

"As you wish." Adam and Jason said, mockingly bowing and walking off. Tommy turned back to Aella. "Follow me." He said, turning towards the stairs.

"In my pjs?" Aella asked. Tommy didn't answer her and kept walking. Aella sighed and ran to catch up.

Down in the sparring room, a half awake Aella, a yawning Kali, a whiny Charis, a muttering Cari, and a completely awake Alexia were sitting against a wall, all still in their pjs. A sleepy Cam, a grouchy Shane, a dozing Connor, an annoyed Tori and a plotting Adam, Jason and Tommy were leaning against the wall beside them, all in their sparring sweats.

"Where are Nia, Hunter and Dustin?" Jason asked Adam and Tommy.

"Just wait." Adam said, with a smirk at Tommy. Jason looked at Tommy fro an explanation.

"Let's just say Nia doesn't do mornings." Tommy laughed. Just then the sparring doors opened to reveal Hunter and Dustin carrying a still sleeping Nia between them.

"Good thing you know where your girlfriend keeps her spare key." Hunter said as he and Dustin laid Nia down on the mat in front of Aella.

"Nah, dude. Good thing she sleeps like a rock. If she knew where she was, she'd kick our butts." Dustin said as Nia curled up into a ball and mumbled, "Dr. O is SO dead, dude," in her sleep.

Aella, Kali, Hunter and Dustin all at once began to simultaneously poke Nia. She began to kick at them and in one fluid motion, she rolled over in to a sitting position with her legs criss-crossed. "What?" she demanded.

"Morning, Starshine." Hunter said. Nia just glared and growled at him.

"Just back away slowly, Hunter." Jason advised, remembering how Tommy could be in the morning before his coffee.

"Starshine?" Tommy asked Hunter, amused.

"Yeah. It's her middle name. Hippie conservationist parents." Hunter said, backing away from Nia's glare and growl and sitting next to Charis, who patted his shoulder consolingly.

Tommy smirked. "Starshine. Starshine. Why don't you come out and play?" he taunted her as he slowly circled her.

"Um, she's already pissed at you, especially if she's muttering death threats in her sleep. You're only going to break her temper and you REALLY don't want to be on the receiving end of that." Dustin warned him as he slowly backed away towards Hunter.

"Maybe I do." Tommy said with his trademarked evil laugh. Connor could swear that he saw a flash of green in Dr. O's eyes.

"You SURE that he's not still evil?" Aella asked Jason, questioning the sanity of her mentor as she watched him continue to torment her best friend.

"Zordon said that he was clean." Jason said, not very convincingly, as Tommy whipped out some more Evil Laugh™.

"Zordon was also a holographic head in a tube of light." Kali muttered under her breath, watching Tommy taunt Nia more.

"C'mon, little Starshine. What's the matter? Afraid to get dirty?" Tommy teased, getting in Nia's face. She snarled at him, watching his every move with her eyes, completely focused on him.

"It's like watching a stupid peasant taunting a seriously pissed off dragon." Connor said, watching as Tommy began to randomly poke Nia.

"Out of all of us, she was always the most interested in the mythological creatures." Alexia said. Connor just stared at her blankly.

"She really doesn't like to be poked. It's like he knows all her 'Stop-NOW-Or-I'll-Kill-You' buttons and has a death wish." Shane said.

"How do you know that?" Cari asked him, curious.

"I mistakenly tried to start a poke war with her last year at the X-Games. It was early in the morning and I was trying to wake her up so we could go watch Dustin's race. I still have the scar." Shane said, showing her a long deep scar on his right arm.

"Back off, dude." Nia snarled at Tommy, who was still poking her.

"Starshine, why don't you fight back? Afraid of a little mud?" Tommy jeered at her as he poked at her ribs.

"THAT"S IT!" Nia screamed, grabbing Tommy's right arm and flipping him over, shocking him. All the Rangers swore that they could feel the earth move beneath them.

"I thought she was a dancer. Dancers don't know those kinds of moves." Jason said as he watched Nia start to seriously beat up on Tommy. Tommy was barely able to defend himself against the fury of Nia.

"Dustin and I taught her some stuff. A lot of it is what she picked up from watching me and Adam spar all the time." Aella said, as she watched Nia use some of her and Adam's signature moves, Tommy hardly being able to block them.

"Yeah, Aella and Adam are great teachers. The Ninja Storm guys are pretty good teachers too." Kali added as she watched Nia pin Tommy and yell right into his face, "NEVER DO THAT TO ME AGAIN BEFORE SUNRISE! NEVER!"

"She only has anger issues before sunrise. Otherwise, she's pretty mellow unless provoked." Dustin explained as he pulled Nia off of Tommy and forced her over to where Hunter was sitting. Dustin forced Nia down into a sitting position in front of Hunter, who held her still as Dustin pinned her arms behind her back. Hunter then grabbed her ankles into a hold so she couldn't kick anyone.

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind." Tommy said, getting up and checking himself for broken bones. "I'm going to have some nasty bruises from her."

"Maybe even scars." Shane added as Tommy went over to Adam.

"Now you know how you can be in the morning." Jason teased Tommy, which earned him a punch in the arm.

"Only before I have coffee am I EVER like that." Tommy said, defending himself.

"You totally don't want to see Ni on coffee, man. It's scary." Dustin said, struggling with Nia.

"I-wasn't – finished- yet!" Nia said as she tried to break free of Hunter and Dustin's hold.

"Now you are. It's time for the next match." Adam said, checking his spiral.

"Who's next?" Jason asked, trying to see the spiral.

"You are." Tommy said, looking over Adam's shoulder.

"Yes! Against who?" Jason asked, excited.

"Aella." Tommy said, smiling his evil smile.

"Nice. A challenge." Jason said, rubbing his hands together.

"She's just as good as Adam and me." Tommy warned him, afraid he wasn't getting the point.

"No problem." Jason said confidently, walking on to the mat.

"Your funeral." Aella said as she stood up, stretched a bit and walked out onto the mat towards him.

"Please. It can't be that-ACK!" Jason yelped as Aella casually flipped him over onto his back with a carefree, "Pinned ya". Jason immediately jumped back up, launching into a high speed sparring match.

"Sweet!" Tori cheered, watching the yellow blur that was Aella repeatedly beat down Jason.

"That's my girl." Adam said proudly as he watched the countless sparring practices and bruises pay off.

"She's-she's totally beating him! The first Red!" Connor cried in disbelief, unable to comprehend it.

"Duh, dude." Nia stated, pride for her best friend evident in her voice. Conner continued to watch, speechless.

Everyone watched as the match came to a stop with a final hard knock-down from Aella which left Jason flat on the floor. "Pinned ya again." Aella said, walking off the mat, grinning at Tommy, high-fiving Tori and receiving a kiss on the cheek from Adam.

"How's that for an ego check?" Tommy asked Jason, pulling him up from the floor.

"It finally hit me what Trini had been telling me for years." Jason said checking out the forming bruises on his arms.

"What's that?" Tommy asked, looking over Adam's shoulder at the list.

"Never underestimate women. Especially Rangers."

"True that!" Aella and Nia cheered. Tommy and Jason just glared at them.


End file.
